Classified Love
by 0.J.A.Z.Z.0
Summary: Katara starts at a new High School, and quickly discovers that there are to be no inter-nation relationships. With the start of the Annual Battle Competiton, she is grouped with a diverse bunch, including Fire Nation Royalty - the fiery Prince Zuko. Zutara Story.
1. Prologue

**-A** **UTHOR'S NOTES-**

 **So everyone knows, the characters are one year older than they are in the first season-**

 **Katara-15**

 **Zuko-17**

 **Sokka-16**

 **Azula-15**

 **The only exception is Aang and Toph, they will be the same age as Katara ( the freshmen ), for the purpose of the story, sorry folks.**

 **Enjoy the first chapter :)**

The wind forced hair onto my face, the deep brown locks blocking my sight.

 _'Of course I kept my hair down, now I'll look like a clown on the first day.'_

My nervous thoughts were momentarily interrupted by the picturesque park laid out before naturally placed around the lush field. I smiled knowing I would walk this same path everyday since the park completely surrounds the High school. Glancing down at the blue path, I began to wonder.

 _'How unfair it was, that just because of some stupid war 100 years ago, the divide of the nations still effects her today. It stops her from exploring culture and meeting new people. How she couldn't even walk on the same path to school with the other nations. How she would be immediately arrested as soon as she stepped over the border. How she could only have classes with those of the same nation. How she could only really interact with those of another nation was at lunch. It was all so unfair.'_

"Hey! Katara wait up!" I knew that voice anywhere, and groaned at the thought of the speaker. Sokka skipped up to me, a wide smile plastered on his tan face.  
"Well hello there Katara, my freshy little sister!" Sokka said as he slung his arm around my shoulders. I groaned again.  
"Okay, don't ever call me that again," I said lightly, "and brushed his arm off and tried to fix my hair.  
"Well you were smart and let your hair down on a very clearly windy day." Sokka smirked.  
"Hey now, I know. And why are you calling me freshy? You've only gone here for one year and you are still officially a junior as well". I smiled, "Mr. freshy". I watched as Sokka pretended to be shot and fell to his knees.  
"Oh get up, you big baby. You're sixteen, shouldn't you be more mature?" I kept walking without him.  
"Wait!" Sokka jogged up to meet me, "That fact that I'm a sixteen year old boy is why I'm so immature." He shrugged, "It's not my fault". I tried to stifle a laugh but it came out without my consent. Sokka beamed his satisfied expression on his face. "My amazing sense of humor still ceases to disappoint me". I let out a small giggle, making Sokka give me a loving smile. We walked the rest of the way without saying a word, because the air was filled with comfortable silence. I looked into the distance, if I squinted hard enough too the right I could see green blobs, and too the left red blobs.

'It's such a shame that the fire nation exterminated the last of the Air Nomads, I've always wanted to meet one.' My thoughts began to wander again, causing her to bump into Sokka.  
"You should watch where you're going there freshy, I know some people you really don't want to mess with at school." He patted me on the shoulder.  
"Let me shed some light on the topic." He said with a dramatic flare. "On the fire nation side", he pointed to the red blobs, "Prince Zuko, obviously, he's a prince so of course he's stuck up and a bully to the other nations. I'm just presuming, but I know Princess Azula is starting this year, and I'm pretty sure she'll be even worse that Zuko. The Earth kingdom kids are mostly chill, there are these kids in a group that get into trouble lots, their leader is Jet, so I would stay away from them. There's no trouble makers from the water tribe, but who knows, this year brings a whole new batch of little terrors". He pretended to shiver with fear dramatically.

"Good to know, but, once again, us 'little terrors'", I said with air quotes. "Are just one year younger that you, and you should be afraid, when Mixed Groups starts, you may get one of us in your group". I grinned evilly, happy to be scaring Sokka.  
"Hey, how do you know about Mixed Groups?" Sokka asked.  
"I did my homework. Isn't it where kids from any class, age, and nation are grouped at random, and work together to be in the school competition. So groups of six people, bender and non-bender face of until there is a winner. And it is the only time benders can bend at school. Did I miss anything?" I looked to my brother, happy to be knowledgeable.  
"Nope, you covered everything", he smiled, then went back to kicking a pebble along the smooth path. We walked in comfortable silence.

Minutes later we arrived at the school gates.

The enormous deep blue gates leading to the school courtyard stood tall and began to open. On both sides of the gates a tall beige wall seemed to go on forever, until it curved out of sight. Students entered leaving gaping Katara behind. Sokka turned to her with a smile.  
"Good luck Katara, see you after school."  
I returned the smile, wishing he started on the same day as me. Moments passed, then he left back up the path and into the beautiful park.

' _Inhale. Exhale'_

I slowly followed the mass of new students to the auditorium.

 _'Chill Katara, it's only high school, it's not like you're a fish diving into a pool of hungry sharks. Wait I take that back, that's exactly what I'm doing.'_

The mass of water tribe kids came to a halt, I looked around with wonder. Up till this moment I have never seen anyone from anywhere but her tribe.

I could easily distinguish the different nations, just by there appearance, even in the dimly lit room. Fire nation kids had dark hair, golden eyes, and light skin normally, earth kingdom people were varied and diverse, but naturally had dark hair, green eyes, and light or dark skin. The water tribe citizens had tan skin, blue eyes and dark hair. Though nothing was dividing us, everyone stayed separated from any other nation but their own.

A spotlight appeared, and set itself upon a man standing in the center of a square stage.

"Hello, I'm Headmaster Zhao, I will be watching over you while you attend this school for the next 4 years. You are juniors, and your form class teacher will explain the rules. But if you have any serious information, you will come straight to me. As a fair warning, I will also be administering the punishment if you step out of line. But you won't, will you?" The crowd remained silent unsure of whether it was a rhetorical question or not. "Will you", He raised his voice, and everyone could tell that this wasn't a question.

"Yes headmaster", the group said in perfect unison, to nervous to say anything else.

" Good", he smiled a cruel smile, "the only rule I will cover, is the most important rule, and no one will break it. There is to be no inter-nation relationships above friendship, it is unlikely, since you only see the other nation in the halls, at lunch , and during the competition. But it has happened before, and I will make sure that it will never happen again".Though he just scanned the crowd it was like he made eye contact with every single one of them. "If I feel that the open lunch is too much, I will take it away. It is a privilege and if you don't deserve it then you won't get it". He stood in silence for 10 seconds, then spoke. "You are dismissed, look at the class sheets and go to your selected class room".

Even when we were dismissed we all stood still, waiting till he left the room, and when we finally couldn't hear the click clack of his shoes, we scattered to the sheets.

I found my name, and of course, I knew no one else on the list. I walked alone through the winding halls to my class. I touched the door, exhaled sharply, then walked into my form room. I found that we all have delegated seats, I sat in mine a took in the surrounding. We sat in seats two by two, I could see a tag with my name on it, **KATARA TANKA**. I could also see that the tag next to me read **LEVA HANSTASHI** , there were about 10 other students in the class with me and more arriving. The walls were blue, with light waves painted on, simple, yet beautiful. The chair next to me screeched as someone slid it out, and in. A pretty girl sat next to me, she had straight black hair, tied up in a bun. Dark green eyes that you wouldn't normally find in the water tribes, and smooth olive skin, that blue clothes flowed over. So this must be Leva.

She studied me as I did the same to her, moments passed before she spoke to me.

"Hi, I'm Leva". She gave me a sweet smile, and pointed to the name tag in front of her.

"Hey, I'm Katara", I said, and turned my tag so she could see. I was worried that awkward silence would follow our short introduction, luckily she wasn't done talking yet.  
"Are you excited for Competion this year, it'll be our first time". She had a excited look in her eyes, the same one I would see in my brother's".  
"Yeah, my brother has told me all about it, it seems fun. Especially since I'm a water bender, and it's the only time I can do it at school", I said.  
"Really! My brother's a f-", she looked lost for words and a bit embarrassed"... bender. Yeah. He has been at this school for two years, and his group has won every time. I was happy that the conversation was flowing so easily between us, so I said,  
"Oh cool! Who was your brother's group mentor?" It seemed that she just remembered something suddenly, and checked my name tag.

"Oh! Tanka! Are you Mrs Tanka's daughter?" She had an excited look in her eyes, I guessed she had some sort of connection with her.  
"Yeah, she's my mom!" When I gave the good news, her smile was from ear to ear.  
"Oh, that's so cool! She was my older brothers group teacher during last year's competition!" I was happy to have something in common with her, I'd like to make a friend to hang out with.  
"Cool, what's his name? I can ask my mom if she remembers him." I briefly looked around, to find that the class was now full of fifteen year old's chatting loudly.  
"Yeah. You probably already know him". She looked quite awkward, I was worried that I had said something wrong, but she began to speak again. "Well let me start by saying that I was adopted when I was eight, so I'm not blood related to them, and I still decided to keep my name", She closed her eyes briefly, deciding whether to tell me his name or not. "His name is-", her sentence was cut short, because the door slammed open and a figure walked through the door, draped in blue. All eyes were now glued to the mysterious person, and all conversations had stopped. The figure turned to face the class and pulled off the hood, grey eyes locked with the class. An old woman with long white hair stood in front of the teens, dull and wrinkled skin, a crooked stance, this must be our teacher. But she wasn't just our teacher, because I knew her.

"Hello, kids. My name is Hama, I will be your form teacher for the next year", she looked happy, but her sweet smile expanded when she spotted me. One of my grandmothers close friends was my teacher, I was just relieved that I wouldn't get a mean teacher, even though most of those came from the fire nation. The new teacher cleared her throat, "You kids can talk for a while longer while I get set up", and with that she hobbled over to her desk and began to unpack supplies. I turned back to Leva, waiting to hear what she was going to say.

"So, what were you going to say?" I asked, excited to find out the name of this girl's brother.  
"Yeah. Actually never mind, he's a nobody, you probably don't know him anyways", I wasn't so sure that her brother was just a 'nobody', but I didn't want to push it, I couldn't risk scaring away the only friend I've made.  
"Okay, whatever you say". By that time the form time was over, and we were on to our next class. The teacher dismissed us and sent us on our way. The door opened and we stepped into the flood of kids of all ages. I wanted us to walk to class together but she was stuck to the wall. I gave her a questioning look.  
"Sorry, I have to wait for my brother to give me a note". I nodded, deciding to wait for her, so we could walk together. I noticed she actually looked _scared_.  
"Are you okay, you look, a little scared of something", I said gingerly, "maybe your brother".  
"No, it's not him I'm worried about, it's my sister, she can be. Difficult". I wanted to ask more questions but I heard a boys voice.

"Leva! Leva you there?" His voice was coming from a little ways down the hall, but I couldn't see the person speaking.

"Who's that?" I asked Leva.  
"That would be my brother", she said pointing down the hall.

I look and see something I definitely wasn't expecting. A Fire Nation teen. He had black hair, that fell perfectly onto his forehead, golden eyes that I could catch even in the crowded halls. The most eye catching thing was his scar, that covered quite a bit of the left side of his face, obviously from a burn. He was very attractive. I was dead to the world for a few seconds while my eyes analyzed him. _'Damn, he looks good'_ , I was a bit shocked, but I realized that I had seen him somewhere. Because I now recognized him as the Fire Lords son.

Prince Zuko.

 **I plan to update every 1 or 2 weeks.**

 **Dont forget to review, the feedback will make me want to update more.  
And sorry this chapter is so short, it's kind of like prologue, I will make the other chapters longer.  
**

 **Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 1

**_Thank you to those who followed, reviewed and faved. I know that there aren't a lot of you, but you make me want to keep writing this story, so THANK YOU._**  
 ** _Enjoy the second chapter!_**

* * *

I drop to the floor like my life depended on it, creating an obstacle for oncoming students. Leva gave me a questioning look, but I didn't have the time reply, I sprinted down the hall, in the other direction from Zuko. I race past students not caring who I bumped in to, my only goal was to get as far away from him as possible. After reaching the other side of the school. I leaned against the outer wall of the school, breathing heavily, my chest rising and falling at a quick rate.

 _"Did he see me? If he did he recognise me? So, he's Leva's brother, step-brother. And that means that Azula is her step-sister, I can understand why she was a bit nervous."_ I knew that Zuko was coming to this school, but Leva's brother? Really? I was planning on just avoiding him, but it would be pretty hard to do that now, since he was my only friend's brother. All these memories came back, and I couldn't help but cringing at what happened so long ago...

 _We were only five and six when Sokka and I were staying at the Fire Nation Palace for the night (A year before the laws preventing people from crossing borders had been enforced) while an accidental fire burned down half of the village. All the civilians stayed in the multiple guest rooms in the palace. During a game of hide-and-seek with Sokka, I had wandered into a very regal room, but was too young to care or be suspicious in the slightest. I searched the room for a suitable hiding place but was disappointed to find none. I did notice anther door, leading to a closet or wardrobe, I hoped. To my suprise, I opened the door to find a boy. A naked one. Drying himself with a towel, but now he just stood gaping. His brain caught up and he covered himself quickly. Before sending a puff of fire my way and screaming for me to get out. I ran till I came to a crashing halt when I collided with Sokka at full speed. I never spoke of that moment to anyone, and I only discovered that that boy was the Fire Prince, when Fire Lady Ursa and him came to greet us later that evening. I managed to keep my head down and slip away unnoticed, we never saw each other again._

Even though it was so long ago, and many people would not be embarrassed at something that happened so long ago, I couldn't help but blush profusely. What would the Fire Prince do if he found out that I was the one who saw him bare? Burn me? Banish me? Execute me?

 _'No. I'm just being irrational, he would never do that, and besides, he probably doesn't even remember'_ I managed to convince myself that Prince Zuko was not as bad as the rumours said. My breath had slowed now, and I was already running late to class, on the first day. _Great._ I sprinted off toward Nation History Class.

* * *

"Leva! Leva you there?" I called out into the bustling hall, luckily, a gap in the stream of kids appeared, and I spotted my little sister. She had someone next to her though, a Water Tribe girl, brown hair and skin, but piercing blue eyes that I locked onto immediately. The moment only lasted for a moment, because she dropped to the floor, hidden from my sight. I couldn't see, but I presume that she sprinted away, because when I made it to Leva she was gone.

'What a weirdo', I said.  
Leva turned to me, a look of confusion upon her face.  
"I wonder what that was about? " she said.  
"Yeah, she's weird" I smirked to myself  
"Hey, she's my acquaintance, and she's actually really nice", Levant said matter-of-factly.  
"Yeah whatever, here's the note from Azula. She wants to meet you at her locker at the beginning of lunch". I said while handing her the wrinkled note.  
"OK, thanks", she gave me a sad smile, and I knew what was wrong.  
"I'm sure it's nothing, she probably just wants to talk", I smiled reassuringly at her. She folded the note and placed it in her pocket. "So, how's the first day going?", I said.  
"It's fine, how's Year 13 treating you?" She didn't seem very talkative now that I brought up Azula.  
"Fine", I didn't have much to say to her. I was closer to her than to Azula, but we still have our awkward moments. "So, I'll see you later today?" I said slowly backing up, hoping she would get the hint. "Yeah, see you later", she waved, and walked down the hall, which was now free of other students.

I turned on my heels and strolled down the silent halls checking to make sure that there were no wrinkles on my expensive clothes. I reached the end of the corridor, and pushed the double doors open, getting soaked in sunlight. I stood in the doorway, looking over the courtyard, hundreds of students scattered around walking to their classes. At least half of them looked up, and stared at me, then went back to walking and chatting. The other half looked up, and stared, ogling and fawning over me.

 _I owned this school._

I began to cross the courtyard but was quickly stopped by a rushing water tribe girl. It was as if everything moved in slow-motion, her left shoulder collided with my right, causing her to turn and face me as she tripped over her feet. I had a brief moment of recognition, but I didn't have time to think because she continued to turn, and her back was now facing the ground. She began to fall toward the ground, her eyes full of alarm, and her hands extended, reaching for anything to hold onto to stop her descent. Without thinking my hand moved, at a rate I didn't even know it could, and grabbed one of the falling girl's hands.

We stayed like that for a few moments. Her body hanging above the ground. My hand clasped in hers. Our eye's, locked onto the others, blue clashing with gold. She looked dazed, and her eye's searched mine as if looking for something. She was very pretty, with dark brown hair and tanned skin, but her eyes were what was most beautiful about her. My body moved before my mind gave it's consent, but now my mind had caught up.

 _'What was I doing saving this random water tribe girl'_

I dropped her hand like a hot coal, there was a thud as her body hit the bricks.

She fell only a few inches, but she glared at me as if I had dropped her a few meters.

"Well thanks' for dropping me", she said sarcastically, clearly annoyed.

"Aww, you're welcome for stopping you from falling, it was my pleasure", I said with my deep voice, and equal amount of sarcasm. She rubbed her back as she came to her feet, still glaring at me. When she recovered, she stood in front of me, and gave me one last evil eye, before turning one the balls of her feet and walked off to class.

 _'Damn Year 11's',_ I thought with a sour look on my face.

I continued on my way, heading to English. My short trip seemed to take much longer as I thought of the girl.

 _'Who did she think she was? Bumping into the future Fire Lord of the Fire Nation, she should have been on her knee's, begging for forgiveness. She's clearly a bimbo. Pretty. But a bimbo nonetheless._

I walked into my class and I noticed something was off. Normally people paid atention to me and puffed their chests to look good, but now they looked at me and slumped in their chairs, a look of relief upon their faces. It was like ther knew something I didn't. I warily crossed the class and found my seat. My best friend Shon found me, his brown hair hanging in front of his black eyes.

"Did you hear the news?" He asked with an excited look in his eyes, the same one I would see in my sister's.

"No, what was it?", I said leaning forward in my seat, I had a feeling this had something to do with the strange behaviour.

"Their making Battle Competition non-mandatory" he said. A smile came to my face as I understood what this meant. I no longer have to face the easy teams of not experienced fighters, I can face people who are more on my level, and I will finally have good fighters on my team. I smiled up at Shon.

"Finaly", I said. The teacher tried to get our attention, and eventually succeeded.

"Classes have been cancelled, I know it's the first day, but we have decided that we cannot start school until the Year 12's arrive. So you are dismissed, but if you wish to sign up for Battle Competition, please do that on the way out." He finished and left the room. I sprinted up to the sheet, so my name was first on the paper, now people knew who they would be facing. I left the class confident my team would win this year, and knowing I would get to beat my sister this year.

* * *

 **Katara**. That's what I wrote on the signup sheet yesterday. I was over the moon about Battle Competition being optional, now I wouldn't have to weed out the unexperienced people and go straight to the tough competition. I don't usually consider myself a competitive person, but when it comes to bending battles, I was going to win. No questions. The whole school was gathered in the auditorium, ready to hear the Battle Competition teams, the teams determined your fate in the Battle Competition. I stood next to Sokka, who had also signed up, he wasn't a bender, but he was pretty handy with a sword ,and boomerang. If you didn't sign up, you had to go to class as normal, but trust me, no one tried to sign up to get out of class. Class was a much safer option, the Battle Competition was brutal, and at least one person had a serious injury during the span of five week in which the Battle Competition ran. I just hoped that that one person wasn't me. A light finally apeared upon the square stage, and Headmaster Zhao appeared out of the darkness.

"Hello, students. Today we are gathered to announce the groups for the Battle Competition". He spoke in his usual low and husky voice. The pupils clapped, everyone here was either a bender or skilled in a fighting style, these people were my competition. "Please listen as I will call your name and the room you are to go to, to meet your teammates, and group leader". He began reading names, there should only be about 150 of us, but it would be a slow process. Especially since they read it by last name, and ours was pretty far down the list. After a long ten minutes, he read a familiar name. "Sokka Tanka, room 425". I was hoping that we were in the same group, the chance was slim, but I would call myself an optimistic person, so I waited anxiously for my name to be called. "Katara Tanka, room 425". I practically jumped with joy, I would be in the same team as my brother!

We arrived at room 425 and pushed the red door open. The room was set in the normal two by two format, and there was already two people here. The first person I noticed was an Earth Kingdom girl. She had black hair done in a updo, green, glassy eyes. Delicate, porcelain skin, and a pretty face. She was wearing rich clothes, a sign of wealth. Except the way she slumped in her chair, and had dirt all over her suggested that she was not a fancy girl. The next person was a girl, also pretty, and Earth Kingdom. She had short auburn hair, dark blue eyes, and clean, light skin. The latter girl waved us over and we walked over and pulled out two chairs to sit in.

"Hey, I'm Suki!" She said happily.

"Hi, I'm Katara, and this is Sokka", I replied

"Nice to meet you, are you two brother and sister?" Suki asked

"Yeah, but I'm a Year 12 and she's Year 11" Sokka said this time.

"Cool, I'm Year 12 as well. Toph! Come over here and introduce yourself." Suki said to the glassy eyed girl. The girl, Toph, stomped over to the trio, clearly not the graceful type.

"Hey, I'm Toph" She said bluntly, Picking something green out of her teeth. D _efinitely not the graceful type._ "And before you ask and make it awkward, yes, I am blind." She continued to not show emotion as she shocked Sokka and I.

"But I see with my feet by feeling the vibrations in the ground, so I'm not totally helpless", Toph said. My jaw hung open, from shock and amazement. Toph turned her head toward me, and smirked. "I can even see that awed expression on your face". I managed to bring my jaw back up.

"That's amazing, so you can see if someone is standing outside in the hallway?" I asked.

"Yes, and I can tell if you're lying", my mind was being blown as I talked to this incredible girl. Suki cut in,

"So, are you guys benders?".

"Yeah, I'm a water bender", I responded confidently. Sokka shook his head though.

"Sweet, I'm a Earthbender", Toph said, now picking something off her bare feet.

"Well, I might not be a bender, but I and good with a sword and boomerang", Sokka said.

"Same, but I use a fan, I know it sounds stupid, but trust me, I'm a good fighter", Suki responded.

I'm about to respond, when someone new opens the door.

All our heads turn to the now open door. A strange boy walked into the room, he looked out of place and uncomfortable. He had brown, spiked hair, big grey eyes, and light skin. The boy shuffled over to us and pulled out a chair to sit on.

"Hi, I'm Katara", I say extending my hand for him to take.

"Hi, I'm Aang", he shakes my hand a little too hard, like he hasn't done it before. The other introduce themselves, and we talk for a bit. I found out that Aang is a water bender, like me! And Toph, and Aang are both in Year 11.

"Wow, three benders on our team! That's great!" Aang exclaims. Suki doesn't look like she agrees though.

"Some team's will have every member being a bender, or at least have every member being a master in some sort of fighting style, and we don't even know who our last member is", Suki pointed out.

"Well, I hope they know something, because I really want to win this year. Last year I came fifth, but only because one guy on my team slipped and knocked over my whole team." Sokka said before slapping his palm to his forehead. The rest of us laughed at his expense.

We were just feeling relaxed when the door opened for the second time, this time two figures walked into the room, both dressed in red. The first was a plump, aged man, with a royal topknot. He had a wrinkled, kind smiling face, with a complicated beard. Following him was... I groaned. Prince Zuko. As soon as our eyes met, his face became distorted.

 _Was it because of yesterday? Or what happened so long ago? Had he remembered?_

He slumped into a chair, on the opposite side of the group from me. I stared at him.

 _Did he know who I was?_

The way he gave me a confused look when he looked back at me said no. Zuko didn't need to introduce himself to the rest of the group, we all already knew him, and he knew it. The man up front, our teacher I presumed, Wrote his name on the board in chalk.

 **Iroh.** He turned to face us, and I had a vague recollection of a General Iroh. Yes, He was General Iroh, and Prince Zuko's uncle.

"Hello", he said in an old soothing voice, "I'm your group leader, and temporary mentor". He looked over us, the faced the board, underlining his name. He turned to face us with a big grin.

"So, who's ready to win?"

* * *

 **AHHH! That's the second one done! Sorry, it was 2 weeks ago I uploaded the first episode, I presumed that it wouldn't get any favs or follows, so I didn't start writing for a few days, putting me behind, and causing to make this chapter not as long as I hoped for. Sorry. Will update this story ASAP, probably. See you next week (or next, next week, it depends) :)!**


	3. Chapter 2

I had to sharply turn to the right to avoid the fiery comet that whizzed past her face mere inches from my blue eyes.  
"Do the words 'Shoulders and below, and play nicely' mean anything to you?" I remarked. Our team was assigned to the fields outside of our school's gate. There was an abundance of lush grass and wild flowers, who seemed to dance in the subtle wind. Toph and Aang were facing off to my right, while Suki and Sokka were fighting to my left. _'While I'm stuck with -'_

"Well maybe I actually want to win, I'm playing to win, not to playing nicely." Zuko said competitively. "Deal with it. Let's just fight", he said while already walking towards me. I stayed where I was but drew water from the bucket next to me and sent a blast toward his torso. He dodged it easily.

 _'Crap.'_ He then proceeded to send two fireballs at my feet, which inevitably caused me to stumble. I caught myself with a supporting water stand, out of anger I guided a water stream over to my team mate, which curled around his left leg (the one which I noticed he uses the most to balance himself while bending) and froze, locking him to the ground. I had a small feeling of triumph as I walked over to struggling Zuko. "How do you like losing?" I said with a smug smile on my sweaty face. He looked at me quite sanguinely and confidently for the current situation.

"Who said I was losing?" I looked at his hands, which were behind his back. Unfreezing the ice. He looked hard at my face and saw that I found out. With one swift kick he broke out of the thawed ice and knocked me down at the ankles. He strolled over to me, after brushing off the left-over ice nonchalantly. I couldn't see much, a lot of black dots and some funny colourful blurs. But when I regained my sight I saw Zuko was standing over me, his hand holding a fireball dangerously. "How do you like losing?" He said in a mocking tone, I hated it. I rolled my eyes, regaining my breath that I had lost from the hard impact. I finally sat up, but I was only vertical for a few seconds before I flopped back onto the soft grass. My head hurt like hell, and I was sure my body was bruised in many different places. Zuko looked curiously down at me.  
"Aww, is _Princess Katara_ hurt" he said in an innocent voice, but I could tell it was very much sarcastic. It made me boil with rage, enough to get me on my feet and stay on them.  
"Actually, she is perfectly fine. Now, you can go crawl back into the dark hole you came from." I said with a sweet voice.  
"Well I would but my mom's dead", he said sharply. I instantly screwed up my face in disgust.  
"Eww, Zuko that's gross. Like disgusting gross. Just, ewww." I gaged for a minute, but I looked to his hanging head and remembered what he said. _'But my mom's dead'._ Realization dawned on me, my facials sunk, and apologetic look upon my face appeared.  
"Zuko, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to- ", I began, an apology on the tip of my tongue.  
"No. Just, forget about it." He said coldly, he clearly didn't mean to share that with me, we barely know each other. With that he spun on his heels and stalked off toward the school. I had the urge to comfort him, but I knew it wasn't my place. I decided to go with the rest of the team to lunch. Iroh told us to sit together, but I knew that Zuko wouldn't be joining us. We sat in a circle on the grassy field in the school grounds. It was if we had become celebrities overnight. All the people who aren't fighting in the Competition looked at us in awe. We are required to wear tags so the teachers that we are participating in the competition, and the other students definitely noticed, being a part of the Competition earned a lot of respect from other students. We eat in silence for half of lunch, but a competition was later started by Toph.

"Hi bin!" Sokka managed to say, while holding nine grapes in his mouth, I managed to translate that in to _"I win"._ He shot his arms into the air with a happy smile on his face. Toph sat next to him with eight grapes in her mouth and looked like she had been slapped. She clearly had not expected for Sokka to beat her at her own game. Well if it's one thing I learned while living with Sokka, it's never start any sort of food competition. Whether it's a 'who eats the fastest' or a 'who can fit the most grapes in their mouth', you just don't do it. Because you will lose. Suki and Aang looked horrified, because the look Toph was giving Sokka looked like she was imagining all the ways to kill him. But instead, Toph shot the grapes out of her mouth straight at Sokka. When they made impact, Sokka looked quite shocked. He had never met a girl who would do such a thing. But unlike most boys, who would probably run for their lives, Sokka took this as a challenge and shot his grapes at her as well. This only angered Toph more, as she threw a handful of grapes at Sokka. A few moments later we were all chucking grapes at the others. It made me realise how much fun I could have during this Competition.

After lunch we were to go to the field for more training, but I decided to go to my locker first to get some extra math sheets, I didn't want to fall to far behind in class. I quickly ran to the lockers which were on the third floor. I had just arrived at the third floor when I heard angry voices. They seemed to belong to girls, I wasn't sure of the situation, so I hid behind a pillar and peaked around the corner to see who was speaking. I was surprised to see Leva, she looked my different now though, with her hair falling out of her bun, and tears running down her face. I was about to go and comfort her, but another person's back came in to view. I saw short black hair and pale skin, she had a lean figure and seemed to be about my age. The two didn't seem to be friends. Leva was backed against a row of lockers, and slowly sunk to the ground curling in to a ball. The other girl seemed to be the more powerful one in this situation, as she was towering over Leva. The mysterious girl finally spoke, she was the one I heard yelling down the hall, I could tell because she had the same evil voice I heard before.

"Do you think you can embarrass me like that, and get away with it?" She seethed. I seemed to have walked in to a much more complicated interaction than I originally thought. "Our team will be the joke of the school. And that will be all thanks to you." The girl said. After what seemed like twenty minutes the girl finally moved and turned so I could see her face. She was very pretty, with piercing golden eyes, and I instantly recognized her. Princess Azula. I ducked behind the safety of the pillar. Unsure now of what I should do, I really didn't want to get on Azula's bad side, she could put in a bad word about me to the Headmaster, their families were close friends. I decided to watch for a bit longer, so I could suss out the situation, so I slowly stuck my head out from behind the pillar. When I looked back, Leva was now on her feet. She had puffy eyes, but other than that there was no evidence of her crying. She looked timid, but also had a look of defiance in her eyes, and finally spoke up.  
"Listen, I'm just as good a fighter as you are a bender. And just because I'm the only non-bender on the team, doesn't mean we will lose. I bet I'm better than half the other people on the team!" Leva said. Azula stood silent for a moment, before bursting out laughing, and turning to face her sister.  
"Ha! You think you're as good a fight as I am a bender. But sweetheart, comparing you to me, is like comparing a mouse to a dragon", Azula paused and looked Leva up and down. I couldn't see her face, but I could imagine the look of disgust upon her face. "You're pathetic", she finished, and stalked down the hall. There was a minute of Leva standing there, she didn't move, she just stood there staring at the floor. I wanted to comfort her, but I also didn't want her to know I was watching the whole time, so I just stayed where I was. She eventually looked up, wiped her eye's, it didn't look like she had shed a tear, she must have practiced it, then she finally headed the down same hallway that Azula had left through. When I was sure she had left, I came out from behind the pillar, I kept replaying the encounter in my mind, but didn't want to keep Iroh waiting so I grabbed my scrolls and headed back to the field.

* * *

I sat on the field picking flowers, bored to death. I have already been waiting for ten minutes for the Girl, who I couldn't start without. My black hair was being tousled in the wind, I could fix it, but I knew it wouldn't make a difference when it got tangled again in the next few seconds. I was left to my thought for the next few minutes, before the Girl finally showed up. She seemed to walk slower than normal, probably some girl drama. When she finally reached me, she just grabbed her water bucket and walk to her side in the silence which was usually filled with smack talk. We got in to fighting stance, I could tell she had something on her mind, and that would be her downfall.

In just a few short seconds I had her on her back before she even had a chance to defend, if she preformed this way during the Competition, we would lose. I stormed over to her, filled with an anger that somehow felt misdirected.  
"What was that!" I fumed, "If you fight like that when it's the real thing we will lose! You need to get of your sorry ass and fight like you mean it!" I didn't shout, but she definitely knew just how angry I was. Before she had a chance to reply I walked back my spot and stood in my fighting position and didn't move until she was also ready.

This time it took 30 seconds to get her on the ground. I didn't walk over to her I just grunted angrily, then walked to Uncle Iroh. I came up to him, smoke practically coming out of my ears.  
"I- ", I started before I was interrupted by my Uncle.  
"Okay everyone! Team meeting!" He called out to the rest of the team. I was still fuming from before but sat on the ground when Uncle signalled to do so. We all sat on the grass waiting for what Uncle was about to say. "Okay, so does everyone know how the actual Competition works", he said with a raised eyebrow while pouring himself a cup of tea which he brought with a folding chair and table. Sokka and I were the only people to raise their hand, ' _Unbelievable'_.  
"I see…let me explain" He sat on his seat and began his description of the Competition. "The team is split into three groups, a group of three, a group of two, and one solo fighter. First the group of three will verse the other teams group of three, then two verses two, then one v one. The arena is a circle ten meters above a deep pool, so if you fall of, you're going to get wet. Once the bell sound you can move anywhere on the platform. The elements will be provided for you, with buckets of water and discs made of compacted dirt. The aim of each round is to get all members of the opposite group off the platform and in to the water, each round gives you one minute to do so. Except for the one v one battle, which goes until someone is knocked out of the ring. The rules go like this: Let's say Sokka, Zuko, and Toph are competing in the three v three round, If Sokka is knocked out of the ring, then Zuko gets knocked out, but the one-minute mark is up and Toph is still in the ring, she will play in the last, fourth round. Now let's say Aang and Suki play in the second round, and they both get knocked out, then Katara competes in the one on one match and wins. Because she won the one v one game she can bring in _one_ of the lost players, who are, Zuko, Sokka, Aang, and Suki, to play in the last match, which is all remaining players from both teams fighting against each other. Then which ever team gets all players knocked out loses, and the other team wins. So, let's say she brings in Zuko, and they win the fourth match, that means we win the game, it doesn't matter how many people are left on each side, it only matters who is the last standing in the last match. Say, if Katara lost the third, one v one match, then the other team could pick one player to come and play in the last match, putting us at a great disadvantage, so the third match is one of the most important." There was a moment of silence while, everyone slowly processed the rules of the game. "So, do you all understand". Uncle said with a raised eyebrow, we all nodded our heads. "Okay then, back to your practice", he said and waved us off, and looked hungrily at his tea. I stood and walked over to Uncle, a little less angry than before. I started to speak but as once again interrupted by my uncle. "I know what you wish to talk about", he said as he put his cup down, "It's Katara isn't it?" I nodded, about to rant about her laziness, and not being committed and dedicated to the team, but of course I was stopped. "I know, I saw what was going on. I think you should talk to her, she clearly has something on her mind, and she probably just needs a friend." I just stared at him, _'he must have eaten some sort of forest berry'_ I thought _._

"Uncle, in case you haven't noticed, we are not friends." I said sharply." I just want to win this Competition, not have a heart to heart with her". He said nothing and simply shrugged his shoulders. I angrily growled, and stormed back to my section, with no intention of talking with Katara. She was sitting on the ground making a flower chain. I briskly walked past her, only saying, "get up". She jumped up, clearly more motivated than before, finally. And once we were both ready I made the first move and shot a fireball at her torso.

* * *

 **Well...sorry that was a long break between episodes, I had a LOT of school tests I had to study for and just didn't get around to writing. Sorry there wasn't much Zutara in this episode, yeah it was pretty rushed( but I also don't want to rush the whole Zutara thing). Well I HOPE that next weeks episode will be updated sooner and better written.**


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